This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Criminal justice social work inspections
24/06/2005
The Social Work Inspection Agency today published its
report on criminal justice social work in East
Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire.
The inspection assessed criminal justice social services
services provided through a three-council partnership,
against national standards laid down by the Executive.
The key findings of the inspectors were that:
- The supervision of most offenders
focused consistently on offending behaviour and
offending related needs. Supervision focused
consistently on offending behaviour in all sex offender
cases though the content of work with serious violent
offenders was not as good. The three authorities had
established strong partnerships with other service
providers, particularly addiction services.
- Offenders on community service
orders were carrying out well supervised work that was
of benefit to the community. However, the variation in
the resources available to each authority was striking.
There was not yet any sharing of these resources across
the Partnership, but they were undertaking a Best Value
review of this area of work.
- Six out of 10 social enquiry
reports were judged to be 'adequate'. Report writers
assessed offending related needs relatively well but
were less strong at analysing offending behaviour and
the risk of re-offending.
- Around half of the home
background reports sampled were 'good' or 'very good'.
Just under a third were 'adequate' and a quarter
'poor'. Reports were weakest at addressing the risks
the offender posed to the community. Inspectors
considered that the Partnership's risk framework needed
revision as practitioners were unsure about how and
when to use these.
- The Partnership had created a
small throughcare team but had not yet developed a
throughcare service with the capacity to tackle the
risks and needs of offenders released from prison.
The Partnership is required to draw up an action plan to
implement the findings within the next three months.
This is the fifth in a series of inspections examining
the provision of criminal justice social work services
across Scotland.
The inspection focussed on the main areas of service
provision: the preparation of criminal courts reports and
home background reports for the parole board, the
supervision of offenders on probation, community service,
and release from prison on licence.
These services are funded directly by the Scottish
Executive and should be delivered to agreed national
standards.
Following discussions between the Scottish Executive and
CoSLA after the consultation 'Community Sentencing - the
Tough Option', local authorities agreed to form groupings
to deliver criminal justice social work services more
efficiently.